When: Saturday, October 12th 12:00 – 2:30 pm (including lunch)
Where: Konferenzraum 1 at Podewil (Mitte)
Exchange on sustainability and global equity
Together with presenters of international festivals and the invited guest artists we would like to think about a sustainable and fair working and producing practice regarding our role as hosts, artists, mediators and producers.
This exchange follows on from a conversation between festival organizers which we started digitally as the pandemic faded out and we all resumed our work asking ourselves if the halt of our routines could also be a chance to review the ways of working that we took for granted and change some things to a more sustainable and collegial way.
In a first part we would like to start with two impulses by two colleagues and a large round-table discussion. Nishna Mehta from ThinkArts Kolkata (this year’s cooperation partner for FRATZ) will share some ideas about a larger vision of sustainability. How can long distance travel be compensated by leveraging the presence of artists? How do sustainability and inclusion (or exclusion) interlock depending on which lense we use to look at it? And could an aesthetic of sustainability influence our work?
Theater artist and researcher Julia Dina Heße, who is ASSITEJ Germany’s Vice-President a member of the ASSITEJ International’s executive committee, speak about her experiences from the fields and working practices from the working group on sustainability of ASSITEJ International and her research on opportunities and challenges of a sustainable theater for young audiences and our responsibilities as theater makers and change agents.
After lunch we would like to split up in smaller groups to give the chance to exchange ideas and questions in a more intimate setting. There will also be the opportunity to bring in your own topics and open a table if you wish to dive deeper into certain aspects or didn’t find your issues addressed in the first part.
About the speakers
Julia Dina Heße is a dramaturge, director and moderator, lives in Tübingen and works as a freelancer in Germany and abroad in theater for young audiences. She is a guest lecturer at the WWU Münster and from 2012-2018 she was artistic director of the Junges Theater Münster. She is deputy chair of the German ASSITEJ and a member of the board of ASSITEJ International. Together with Andrea Gronemeyer and Gerd Taube, she is the editor of the book “Kindertheater Jugendtheater. Perspektiven einer Theatersparte”. She is currently working on her dissertation on sustainable development in theater for young audiences at the Graduate College of the University of Hildesheim. In it, she deals with the opportunities and challenges of sustainable theater for young audiences and the responsibility of performers as “change agents” for social change in the sense of a great transformation.
Nishna Mehta is an MA in Theatre for Young Audiences. She has been working with and for children and young people from various backgrounds and abilities in India, Singapore, England, Ireland and Germany since 2012.
Currently, she is the Creative Consultant for the Performing Arts Programme at The Gateway School of Mumbai, Project Consultant with ThinkArts, Kolkata, Assistant Director for a production for NCPA Connections and Lead Researcher for ASSITEJ International’s Global Advocacy Focused Research Project with a focus on Diversity in Leadership in Theatre for Young Audiences.
She wishes to share the magic and joy of theatre with young people that she experienced as a child. Her mantra of doing theatre is “Make it happen”. She wishes to reach young people across age groups, backgrounds and abilities throughout the world. She aims to bring her local and international experiences together in order to find a 'glocal' identity.

